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Drink

Essence of Cinnamon

A spirit infusion of cinnamon used as a flavoring for drinks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Spirit and wine work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 701 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

Essence of Cinnamon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the essence

  1. Combine the strong rectified spirit of wine and oil of cinnamon.

  2. Pour this mixture over the bruised cinnamon in a container.

  3. Add the bottle of Cognac and let it steep for 10 days.

  4. Strain the mixture through a flannel cloth.

Serve

  1. To serve, mix a teaspoonful of the essence with a lump of sugar in a glass of good Sherry or Madeira, and add a beaten egg yolk.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Spirit + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together701 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  2. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Spirit + cinnamontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Wine + cinnamontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  5. Spirit + sugartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bruised cinnamon
Supplies the main cinnamon flavour as it steeps in the spirit.
Oil of cinnamon
Adds concentrated cinnamon aroma to the spirit base.
Cognac
Carries the cinnamon flavour and adds its own warm, fruity character.
Beaten egg yolk (in the method)
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the drink when served.

The step that matters

Straining through a flannel cloth. Fine cinnamon particles left in the liquid can make the essence cloudy and gritty. Straining slowly through a fine cloth gives a clear, smooth result.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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